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Density with dignity

City Council member Sally Clark has scheduled two forums next week on how to make Seattle’s townhouses better.

The city has allowed townhouses, which share one or two walls with neighbors, as a way to get denser, more affordable housing than traditional houses over the past dozen years or so. The City estimates that 8,000 townhouses have been built in the last eight years.

“While some new town homes blend into the neighborhood or, even better, stand out as well-designed additions, others are reviled by the neighbors for mediocrity, canyon-creating fences, asphalt wastelands, and impossible-to-navigate garage entries,” according to a news release from Clark’s office. “The fault lies not just with imagination, but also with Seattle’s development rules. The City can do better.”

The first forum, on courtyard housing in Portland, Ore., is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Monday, June 2, in the Bertha Knight Landes Room on the first floor of City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.